Countrywide Surveying Services (CSS) has hosted a high-profile roundtable event to address the role of condition reports in the homebuying process.
The event brought together industry leaders from across the property, finance, and surveying sectors to discuss how to improve the uptake of condition reports and ensure that borrowers are fully informed when purchasing their homes.
The roundtable, hosted by Matthew Cumber, managing director of Countrywide Surveying Services, included prominent figures such as:
Andrew Montlake, Managing Director of Coreco and chairman of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries
Giles Smith, Chief Surveyor and Technical Director at SDL Surveying
John Baguley, Principal of Mortgage Policy at UK Finance
Paul Albone, Strategic Advisor at PEXA and Director of OPDA
Robert Stevens, Head of Property Risk at Nationwide Building Society
Steve Lees, Senior Specialist in Residential Survey at RICS
Beth Rudolf, Director of Delivery at The Conveyancing Association and Co-Chair of the Homebuying and Selling Group
Kate Faulkner, Chair of Home Buying and Selling Council
Joe Arnold, Mmanaging director of Arnold and Baldwin Chartered Surveyors
The discussion focused on several key topics:
The importance of condition reports and the current state of conversations about them within the industry.
The omission of property condition from recent industry discussions and the need for evidence to demonstrate the value of surveys.
Whether Government intervention is necessary or can the industry drive change independently, and how to address barriers to increasing the uptake of condition reports.
Actionable steps to take forward to promote the importance of condition reports.
Matthew Cumber, managing director at Countrywide Surveying Services, commented: “We felt it was crucial to create a platform for open dialogue and collaborative problem-solving which helps to educate borrowers, support brokers, and other professionals involved in the process to have informed discussions around condition reports and their role in the homebuying process.
“The event was an incredibly valuable experience, leaving us with renewed energy and determination to continue these discussions with trade bodies, regulators, and the government, with the goal of broadening the conversation. After all, every stakeholder in the homebuying and mortgage process has a duty of care to ensure purchasers are fully informed when buying their home.”
Beth Rudolf, director of delivery at The Conveyancing Association, added: “This was an interesting roundtable debate and brought home how this is all about understanding the consumer rational at different times. So within the homebuying and selling process it’s about understanding that for sellers they want to know what they can do to improve the value and saleability of their property, while for buyers it’s about having the information on the physical condition of the property prior to offer.
“If both seller and buyers have what they want we’re going to have a much more effective process than currently, where only 10% of buyers for example, will instruct any type of survey. But, the condition report has to be consumer-centric to ensure it provides the information that would impact the average consumer’s decision-making process.”
Absolutely there need to be intervention……However, the intervention needs to be to get rid of this process!! It’s a farce. A surveyor isn’t qualified to check the boiler, the electrics, whether the property has damp or if it needs a new roof. They also aren’t qualified to state whether the property has subsidence, of which all these points the buyer is concerned with. Rip up the process, train ‘surveyors’ up to the required level and get these reports UPFRONT. Make the seller pay for them (NOT the agent) and it would solve so many issues all at once. I am totally fed up to the back teeth with a surveyors report stating that any issues (usually there isn’t one) need to be checked by the appropriate ‘expert’. What was the point of the surveyor then?? Anyone who thinks that a survey is anything other than a risk assessment for the bank is totally blinkered.
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Does make you wonder if Home Information Packs, or a version of, wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
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I’ve never wondered. Concept was great, wrong content etc. Could have been easily fixed though.
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Yes please. That would be AWESOME!
Buuuut…
Firstly, it would be absolutely FABULOUS if agents could arrange to have the gas safety certificates and electric tests done when the property goes on the market. They are not expensive to do and mean that any remedial action can be taken before a buyer gets involved. Then surveyors can read the certificates and give a thumbs up. Guess what – everyone’s a winner!
Secondly, a good surveyor should know what defective electrics look like, what a poor condition boiler looks like, and the difference between a significant structural issue and a minor defect that needs corrective maintenance or repair.
If the surveyors that buyers pick are not up to scratch then I would recommend to any agent that rather than trying to avoid the problem, get proactive. Don’t try to tell buyers they don’t need a survey. They will go and find some random company off the internet. Instead you should find several locally based surveyors who know the area in detail and recommend them to your buyer.
The type of surveyor I’m talking about is the one who can honestly say “Ah yes! I remember those being built…”
Defects in properties need dealing with and with the material information legislation, telling a buyer not to get a survey could be extremely dangerous.
The right surveyor will right a good quality report that will help the buyer, not frighten them off.
Finally, ask an electrician and you’ll find that keeping up with new products, the changes to Building Regulations and the required CPD plus working hard enough to be profitable is a full time job in its own right.
Now ask a Gas Engineer the same. Ditto a structural engineer. And a drainage specialist. And, and, and…
Only a tiny handful of surveyors have the IQ, determination and time to be able to learn ALL the specialities you think should be covered in a pre-purchase report. This means that the cost per report would go through the roof as the amount of time required to keep all that knowledge up to date would be a full time job in itself so the number of reports each surveyor could do would drop significantly.
What we have instead is a system where the initial report should contain enough information to allow the purchaser to make some sensible decisions on what to do next. For this they pay a reasonable fee that makes sense.
If additional reports are required then specialists who know in detail their own subject can be paid for their advice.
And yes, I accept that some pre-purchase surveys are not worth the paper they are written on. For that I can only apologise but would refer you to my comments above. Get proactive by recommending good quality local surveyors and this issue will vanish.
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It needs to happen . 1 survey for 1 house.
Buyers can pay £150 to view it.
Vendors will price house accordingly.
Trouble is surveyors will take 8 weeks to visit. = too long so brake the market like solicitors do.
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